Thiago Reis specializes in the comparative study of modern private law in Europe and Latin America, with particular emphasis on the history of legal science, legal transfers, and the relationship between law and modern economic growth. Having graduated from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) in 2005, he was a member of the International Max Planck Research School for Comparative Legal History (IMPRS) between 2006-2009, and of the Frankfurt Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (FGS) in 2010. He earned an LL.M. degree from the University of Frankfurt in 2007 with a work about Legal Humanism, for which he was awarded the Clifford Chance Prize for best master’s thesis. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joachim Rückert, he completed his doctorate summa cum laude at the University of Frankfurt in 2011 with a thesis on the notion of “juridical fact” in Friedrich Carl von Savigny’s legal theory. His dissertation was awarded the Walter Kolb Memorial Prize 2012 for distinguished academic work. As a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History between 2012-2013, his research concentrated on the circulation of legal ideas between Europe and Latin America. He is currently Professor at the Law School of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. His research project focuses on the connections between legal reforms and economic development in 19th Century Brazil. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Joachim Rückert and Prof. Dr. Thomas Duve
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, 2021
The article analyzes the elaboration of the Brazilian civil code of 1916 as part of a broader pol... more The article analyzes the elaboration of the Brazilian civil code of 1916 as part of a broader political project of Republican modernization, focusing on the relation between private law, politics and economics in Brazil at the turn of the 20th century. The basic argument is that the consolidation of the Republican regime during the presidency of Campos Sales (1898–1902) provided the institutional conditions that paved the way for the codification of civil law. From the political perspective, parliamentary debates indicate that the civil code draft quickly turned into an instrument of political bargain and opposition to the president’s authority. From the legal point of view, the paper argues that, contrary to the prevailing view in Brazilian private law scholarship, the code represented a real attempt to break with the old order and create the conditions for a private law system based on equal juridical freedom. Finally, the paper explores the connections between the reform of legal methodology and legislative modernization, pointing both at the normative principles guiding the civil code elaboration and at the opposition it was faced with in Brazilian society.
Ponderação – a carreira jurídica de um conceito estranho ao direito ou: rigidez normativa e ponde... more Ponderação – a carreira jurídica de um conceito estranho ao direito ou: rigidez normativa e ponderação em transformação funcional
O texto analisa o código civil como parte do projeto de modernização republicana, enfocando a rel... more O texto analisa o código civil como parte do projeto de modernização republicana, enfocando a relação entre direito civil e política na virada do século 20. O argumento aqui é que a conso-lidação do regime republicano no governo Campos Sales criou as condições político-institucionais que viabilizaram o encaminhamento bem-sucedido do código a partir de 1899. Da perspectiva política, os debates parlamentares mostram que a tramitação do projeto rapi-damente se converteu em instrumento tanto de exercício quanto de oposição ao projeto de poder do presidente. Da perspectiva jurídica, o texto argumenta que, ao contrário do sustenta-do pela doutrina atual, o código representou uma tentativa real de ruptura com o ordenamento vigente, buscando criar as condições de uma organização das relações privadas fundada em igual liberdade jurídica. A hipótese aqui é que a conexão entre metodologia jurídica e moder-nização legislativa ajuda a entender não só as premissas a partir das quais é construído o pro-jeto, como também algumas de suas limitações.
Partindo de uma publicação recente de Luiz Edson Fachin, o artigo desenvolve uma crítica ao direi... more Partindo de uma publicação recente de Luiz Edson Fachin, o artigo desenvolve uma crítica ao direito civil-constitucional brasileiro, problematizando a relação entre dogmática jurídica e incerteza normativa no Estado democrático de direito. Ao contrário do que se poderia pensar, a renovação da civilística brasileira promovida desde os anos 1990 tem funcionado – essa a hipótese – mais como fonte de incerteza normativa do que como fator de estabilização e direção do sistema jurídico. Isso se deve a inconsistências metodológicas da proposta civil-constitucional, exemplificadas pela narrativa histórica equivocada por meio da qual ela se legitima e pelas contradições internas de sua “releitura” do direito privado. A principal inconsistência, no entanto, reside na sua visão substancialista do fenômeno jurídico, marcada pelo recurso sistemático à “força normativa dos fatos” e à “constituição haurida da realidade humana e social”. O texto conclui apontando os riscos institucionais desse substancialismo jurídico, enfatizando o elevado grau de discricionariedade judicial que permite e, consequentemente, de incerteza normativa que produz.
The international circulation and reception of the works of Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861... more The international circulation and reception of the works of Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) constitute one of the main features of the first globalization of legal thought. Reaching law professors and practitioners from Brazil to Japan, readings of Savigny's books offer a promising perspective for understanding how legal cultures around the world coped with the challenges of modernity. By focusing empirically on the circulation of books and analytically on the adaptation of texts to local contexts, the approach forwarded here tries to capture the creative aspects of the diffusion of knowledge. For this purpose, it concentrates on Brazilian readers of Savigny in the 19th Century, especially on the celebr-ated lawyer Augusto Teixeira de Freitas (1816-1883). It argues that Savigny's works provided a decisive argumentative framework for some of the main issues discussed in Brazilian jurisprudence of the time. Freitas' work documents a productive reading of Savigny that shaped his views on both normative and methodological issues, from slavery to codification. By tracing Freitas' selective appropriation of Savigny's texts, the article concludes that he was able both to reproduce and to subvert Savigny's conception of private law, whenever the local context and his personal convictions demanded him to.
The paper
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
t... more The paper
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
thought by focusing on Conrad Lagus’ use of the term historia in one of the first systematic
works of 16th Century jurisprudence. Building on recent findings in history of
science, it provides evidence that historia is taken by Lagus, as by some of his contemporaries,
to designate an epistemic category. What is specific about Lagus’ work
is that it is related to i) establishing an independent sphere of validity of positive law
vis-à-vis natural law; ii) affirming the prudential nature of legal reasoning in contrast
to a merely contemplative view of the law. In this respect, the paper argues that the
concepts of historia and philosophia, which constitute the methodological axis of Lagus’
work, are crucial for our comprehension of early modern legal science and must
be understood in light of the philosophical and political context of the Reformation.
Die Unterscheidung von Recht und Faktizität gehört zu den zentralen Aufgaben jeder Jurisprudenz. ... more Die Unterscheidung von Recht und Faktizität gehört zu den zentralen Aufgaben jeder Jurisprudenz. In der rechtlichen Anerkennung von gesellschaftlichen Fakten liegt ein Kernpunkt juristischer Arbeit, der immer dort kritisch wurde, wo die Grenzen des Rechts neu definiert werden sollten. Mit der juristischen Tatsache hat Savigny eine Kategorie geprägt, die in der modernen Privatrechtswissenschaft diese Grenzen bis ins frühe 20. Jahrhundert definierte. Die Studie fokussiert auf den Umgang mit dem Faktischen im Recht bei Savigny und zeigt, welche wissenschaftshistorischen Herausforderungen damit verbunden waren in der Geburtsstunde der juristischen Moderne.
Considerando o protagonismo assumido nas últimas três décadas pelo Tribunal de Contas da União e ... more Considerando o protagonismo assumido nas últimas três décadas pelo Tribunal de Contas da União e o debate sobre a sua atuação no direito econômico, este livro busca delinear a natureza e o impacto da atuação do TCU a partir do estudo de um setor específico: o da concessão de rodovias. Revisando a literatura nacional e estrangeira, o livro analisa 182 decisões proferidas pelo TCU entre 1988 e 2019. Esse conjunto de decisões informou a organização do livro a partir de três eixos de análise: primeiro, a competência constitucional do TCU para intervir na regulação e concessão de serviços públicos; segundo, a intervenção do TCU no regime regulatório, sobretudo em relação à independência técnica e decisória das agências reguladoras; terceiro, o impacto da intervenção do TCU na modelagem e execução dos contratos de concessão. Ao associar uma extensa análise da jurisprudência do Tribunal a uma sólida reflexão doutrinária, o livro oferece uma decidida contribuição ao debate acerca do ambiente regulatório brasileiro no setor de infraestrutura.
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, 2021
The article analyzes the elaboration of the Brazilian civil code of 1916 as part of a broader pol... more The article analyzes the elaboration of the Brazilian civil code of 1916 as part of a broader political project of Republican modernization, focusing on the relation between private law, politics and economics in Brazil at the turn of the 20th century. The basic argument is that the consolidation of the Republican regime during the presidency of Campos Sales (1898–1902) provided the institutional conditions that paved the way for the codification of civil law. From the political perspective, parliamentary debates indicate that the civil code draft quickly turned into an instrument of political bargain and opposition to the president’s authority. From the legal point of view, the paper argues that, contrary to the prevailing view in Brazilian private law scholarship, the code represented a real attempt to break with the old order and create the conditions for a private law system based on equal juridical freedom. Finally, the paper explores the connections between the reform of legal methodology and legislative modernization, pointing both at the normative principles guiding the civil code elaboration and at the opposition it was faced with in Brazilian society.
Ponderação – a carreira jurídica de um conceito estranho ao direito ou: rigidez normativa e ponde... more Ponderação – a carreira jurídica de um conceito estranho ao direito ou: rigidez normativa e ponderação em transformação funcional
O texto analisa o código civil como parte do projeto de modernização republicana, enfocando a rel... more O texto analisa o código civil como parte do projeto de modernização republicana, enfocando a relação entre direito civil e política na virada do século 20. O argumento aqui é que a conso-lidação do regime republicano no governo Campos Sales criou as condições político-institucionais que viabilizaram o encaminhamento bem-sucedido do código a partir de 1899. Da perspectiva política, os debates parlamentares mostram que a tramitação do projeto rapi-damente se converteu em instrumento tanto de exercício quanto de oposição ao projeto de poder do presidente. Da perspectiva jurídica, o texto argumenta que, ao contrário do sustenta-do pela doutrina atual, o código representou uma tentativa real de ruptura com o ordenamento vigente, buscando criar as condições de uma organização das relações privadas fundada em igual liberdade jurídica. A hipótese aqui é que a conexão entre metodologia jurídica e moder-nização legislativa ajuda a entender não só as premissas a partir das quais é construído o pro-jeto, como também algumas de suas limitações.
Partindo de uma publicação recente de Luiz Edson Fachin, o artigo desenvolve uma crítica ao direi... more Partindo de uma publicação recente de Luiz Edson Fachin, o artigo desenvolve uma crítica ao direito civil-constitucional brasileiro, problematizando a relação entre dogmática jurídica e incerteza normativa no Estado democrático de direito. Ao contrário do que se poderia pensar, a renovação da civilística brasileira promovida desde os anos 1990 tem funcionado – essa a hipótese – mais como fonte de incerteza normativa do que como fator de estabilização e direção do sistema jurídico. Isso se deve a inconsistências metodológicas da proposta civil-constitucional, exemplificadas pela narrativa histórica equivocada por meio da qual ela se legitima e pelas contradições internas de sua “releitura” do direito privado. A principal inconsistência, no entanto, reside na sua visão substancialista do fenômeno jurídico, marcada pelo recurso sistemático à “força normativa dos fatos” e à “constituição haurida da realidade humana e social”. O texto conclui apontando os riscos institucionais desse substancialismo jurídico, enfatizando o elevado grau de discricionariedade judicial que permite e, consequentemente, de incerteza normativa que produz.
The international circulation and reception of the works of Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861... more The international circulation and reception of the works of Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) constitute one of the main features of the first globalization of legal thought. Reaching law professors and practitioners from Brazil to Japan, readings of Savigny's books offer a promising perspective for understanding how legal cultures around the world coped with the challenges of modernity. By focusing empirically on the circulation of books and analytically on the adaptation of texts to local contexts, the approach forwarded here tries to capture the creative aspects of the diffusion of knowledge. For this purpose, it concentrates on Brazilian readers of Savigny in the 19th Century, especially on the celebr-ated lawyer Augusto Teixeira de Freitas (1816-1883). It argues that Savigny's works provided a decisive argumentative framework for some of the main issues discussed in Brazilian jurisprudence of the time. Freitas' work documents a productive reading of Savigny that shaped his views on both normative and methodological issues, from slavery to codification. By tracing Freitas' selective appropriation of Savigny's texts, the article concludes that he was able both to reproduce and to subvert Savigny's conception of private law, whenever the local context and his personal convictions demanded him to.
The paper
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
t... more The paper
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
thought by focusing on Conrad Lagus’ use of the term historia in one of the first systematic
works of 16th Century jurisprudence. Building on recent findings in history of
science, it provides evidence that historia is taken by Lagus, as by some of his contemporaries,
to designate an epistemic category. What is specific about Lagus’ work
is that it is related to i) establishing an independent sphere of validity of positive law
vis-à-vis natural law; ii) affirming the prudential nature of legal reasoning in contrast
to a merely contemplative view of the law. In this respect, the paper argues that the
concepts of historia and philosophia, which constitute the methodological axis of Lagus’
work, are crucial for our comprehension of early modern legal science and must
be understood in light of the philosophical and political context of the Reformation.
Die Unterscheidung von Recht und Faktizität gehört zu den zentralen Aufgaben jeder Jurisprudenz. ... more Die Unterscheidung von Recht und Faktizität gehört zu den zentralen Aufgaben jeder Jurisprudenz. In der rechtlichen Anerkennung von gesellschaftlichen Fakten liegt ein Kernpunkt juristischer Arbeit, der immer dort kritisch wurde, wo die Grenzen des Rechts neu definiert werden sollten. Mit der juristischen Tatsache hat Savigny eine Kategorie geprägt, die in der modernen Privatrechtswissenschaft diese Grenzen bis ins frühe 20. Jahrhundert definierte. Die Studie fokussiert auf den Umgang mit dem Faktischen im Recht bei Savigny und zeigt, welche wissenschaftshistorischen Herausforderungen damit verbunden waren in der Geburtsstunde der juristischen Moderne.
Considerando o protagonismo assumido nas últimas três décadas pelo Tribunal de Contas da União e ... more Considerando o protagonismo assumido nas últimas três décadas pelo Tribunal de Contas da União e o debate sobre a sua atuação no direito econômico, este livro busca delinear a natureza e o impacto da atuação do TCU a partir do estudo de um setor específico: o da concessão de rodovias. Revisando a literatura nacional e estrangeira, o livro analisa 182 decisões proferidas pelo TCU entre 1988 e 2019. Esse conjunto de decisões informou a organização do livro a partir de três eixos de análise: primeiro, a competência constitucional do TCU para intervir na regulação e concessão de serviços públicos; segundo, a intervenção do TCU no regime regulatório, sobretudo em relação à independência técnica e decisória das agências reguladoras; terceiro, o impacto da intervenção do TCU na modelagem e execução dos contratos de concessão. Ao associar uma extensa análise da jurisprudência do Tribunal a uma sólida reflexão doutrinária, o livro oferece uma decidida contribuição ao debate acerca do ambiente regulatório brasileiro no setor de infraestrutura.
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faced with in Brazilian society.
law professors and practitioners from Brazil to Japan, readings of Savigny's books offer a promising perspective for understanding how legal cultures around the world coped with the
challenges of modernity. By focusing empirically on the circulation of books and analytically on the adaptation of texts to local contexts, the approach forwarded here tries to capture the creative aspects of the diffusion of knowledge. For this purpose, it concentrates on Brazilian readers of Savigny in the 19th Century, especially on the celebr-ated lawyer Augusto Teixeira de Freitas (1816-1883). It argues that Savigny's works provided a decisive
argumentative framework for some of the main issues discussed in Brazilian jurisprudence of the time. Freitas' work documents a productive reading of Savigny that shaped his views on both normative and methodological issues, from slavery to codification. By tracing Freitas' selective appropriation of Savigny's
texts, the article concludes that he was able both to reproduce and to subvert Savigny's conception of private law, whenever the local context and his personal convictions demanded him to.
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
thought by focusing on Conrad Lagus’ use of the term historia in one of the first systematic
works of 16th Century jurisprudence. Building on recent findings in history of
science, it provides evidence that historia is taken by Lagus, as by some of his contemporaries,
to designate an epistemic category. What is specific about Lagus’ work
is that it is related to i) establishing an independent sphere of validity of positive law
vis-à-vis natural law; ii) affirming the prudential nature of legal reasoning in contrast
to a merely contemplative view of the law. In this respect, the paper argues that the
concepts of historia and philosophia, which constitute the methodological axis of Lagus’
work, are crucial for our comprehension of early modern legal science and must
be understood in light of the philosophical and political context of the Reformation.
faced with in Brazilian society.
law professors and practitioners from Brazil to Japan, readings of Savigny's books offer a promising perspective for understanding how legal cultures around the world coped with the
challenges of modernity. By focusing empirically on the circulation of books and analytically on the adaptation of texts to local contexts, the approach forwarded here tries to capture the creative aspects of the diffusion of knowledge. For this purpose, it concentrates on Brazilian readers of Savigny in the 19th Century, especially on the celebr-ated lawyer Augusto Teixeira de Freitas (1816-1883). It argues that Savigny's works provided a decisive
argumentative framework for some of the main issues discussed in Brazilian jurisprudence of the time. Freitas' work documents a productive reading of Savigny that shaped his views on both normative and methodological issues, from slavery to codification. By tracing Freitas' selective appropriation of Savigny's
texts, the article concludes that he was able both to reproduce and to subvert Savigny's conception of private law, whenever the local context and his personal convictions demanded him to.
attempts to reconstruct a specific conception of empiricism in the history of legal
thought by focusing on Conrad Lagus’ use of the term historia in one of the first systematic
works of 16th Century jurisprudence. Building on recent findings in history of
science, it provides evidence that historia is taken by Lagus, as by some of his contemporaries,
to designate an epistemic category. What is specific about Lagus’ work
is that it is related to i) establishing an independent sphere of validity of positive law
vis-à-vis natural law; ii) affirming the prudential nature of legal reasoning in contrast
to a merely contemplative view of the law. In this respect, the paper argues that the
concepts of historia and philosophia, which constitute the methodological axis of Lagus’
work, are crucial for our comprehension of early modern legal science and must
be understood in light of the philosophical and political context of the Reformation.